Sporadic Sleeping

Salt Lake City

Hello,

Last night, at 1:19 am, I got up to go to the bathroom, heard Natalie cry, heard Sarah come out of the room, heard rattling breathing by Natalie, and I said I would take Natalie. This three month old sounded more asleep than awake so I just took her into bed with Leroy and me. We are sleeping in a full sized bed so it is tighter space for three than a larger bed would be. However at one time in our lives I remember being in bed in the morning with at least two children sometimes even three children. Those children would have spent most of the night in their own beds.

Natalie’s breathing was nasally noisy, indicating that something was stuck in her nose and not in her lungs. Luckily it was not keeping her awake. I was awake making sure that she did not slide off the pillow or get her head covered up. After she had been there for a long time she made a particularly loud noise before she was totally quiet. “Oh no, has she aspirated that booger into her lungs?” I wondered in a panic.

I felt her face, searching for her nose to see if she was breathing. Relief, Relief! She was exhaling! After a while her breath became noisier again, but never to its former level. At 4:11 am she again woke up, Sarah came in, and took her with her. After that I did again sleep until the girls woke ready to take a walk at 6:45 am.

Sarah and her girls left this morning to go back to DC, Andy went to work, Leroy took Olivia to pre-school, and Nora and I were left alone in the house. It was more peace and quiet than I have experienced in some time. I liked it a lot.

It has been a stretch for me to come to this house with some many people in it, people who are louder than I am. I say this in spite of the fact that Brian says that I talk loudly as if we are hard of hearing. I have become used to long periods of solitude. At times I feel that sound is a physical force beating on my body.

Paula